U.S. securities regulator shuts down stock market advisory group

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has shut down a committee of equity market experts that advised the regulator on stock market reforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The SEC formed the 17-member Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee in 2015 to help it dig into issues such as excessive market volatility and potential conflicts in exchange pricing, and make recommendations on ways to improve the rules around them.

Committee members, made up of industry leaders and academics, were notified by email of the SEC's decision on Wednesday, according to the people with direct knowledge, who declined to be named because the decision had not been officially announced. The reason given by the regulator for the move was that the charter of the committee had expired, one of the people said.

The SEC did not immediately return a request for comment.

The demise of the stock market-centric advisory group comes on the eve of the first meeting of the SEC's new Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee. The new group's inaugural meeting on Thursday will feature a discussion around liquidity in the bond market.

The SEC's disbanding of the Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee was first reported by Bloomberg News.

(Reporting by John McCrank and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Leslie Adler)